Lewis Hamilton: Game-Changing Insight

In the You Tube video “How to Drive Like Lewis Hamilton”, Lewis talks about his driving style.  His interview with Johnny Herbet is mostly unremarkable.  But then he comes out with this gem….

 “It’s the motion of the car that gives you the feel..that gives me the know-how of when to push, of when I’m going too fast or too slow towards an apex.”
- Lewis Hamilton

It’s a stunning commentary on the racing driver’s sensitivity to the car.  When we combine his comments with what we know about race car vehicle dynamics, we have a simple model that goes a long way towards explaining how racing drivers control the car.

The motion of the car Lewis is referring to is his perception of the rotation of the car.

As the tyres build grip in corner entry, Lewis can feel this subtle motion of the body of the car rotating on the tyres while the tyres continue to grip the road.  If the car is rotating too slow, it’s telling him to push harder, or if rotating too fast, he can correct as necessary.

Rotation within the grip range of the tyres is confirmation that the car is gaining grip.  In corner entry, you are feeling the rate that grip is building - whether it is building faster (and the car turning more) or slower, (the car turning less), than you anticipated.

Quite separately from the rotation, you also feel the build up in lateral G due to the lateral force of cornering. 

If the rotation continues too fast, and the driver does not correct, the car will lose cornering grip and go into a spin.

As a result of the rotation, the car adopts a “nose in - tail out” attitude angle relative to the direction of travel.  This angle is known as the Body Slip Angle.  The Body Slip Angle is generated by the tyre slip angles.  If you're interested to learn more about the Body Slip Angle, click below, and I'll send you a diagram explaining exactly how it happens.

The feeling of the rotation can be hard to visualize until you actively feel it in practice.  Yet when you do, you say, "I knew that."  You've been driving with it in the background ever since you started driving.

Practical Exercise to Feel the Rotation:  A Simple Step Steer Test You Can Do on the Road with your Road Car, or at the Track with your Race Car….. 

In our on-line training course, "A Physical Understanding of Race Car Handling" (replaced in 2021 by our new course "Unlocking the Secrets to Car Control") we show you how any enthusiast driver can do this, and feel the rotation of the car with this step steer exercise.